Review

Review Date: 21-January-07
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Here's what I loved about "Pan's Labyrinth:" it's a bona fide fairy tale written, produced, and directed by a filmmaker unafraid of expressing his imagination. Beginning with overtones of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," Guillermo del Toro devises a story about a lively girl named Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) who's forced by war and misfortune to move to a gloomy home. Enticed by a pixie-like creature into an old stone labyrinth, she meets a faun who is both congenial and shady (naturally; he's also unnamed despite the American title of this Spanish film). According to the faun, Ofelia is the lost princess of the underworld who can return to her rightful home if she completes three tasks before the impending full moon. She agrees to the deal, which involves her in deep magic and increasing danger.

Here's what I didn't love about "Pan's Labyrinth:" it's a bona fide fairy tale and thus twisted, dark, and disturbing. Whether Ofelia is making up the adventure or not, she surely has reason to crave escape and sense peril wherever she goes. Her mother's life hangs in the balance with a painful pregnancy, and her new stepfather (Sergi López) is nothing less than a monster. As a four-star murderer commissioned by the dictator Franco to eradicate rebels (and anyone else who gets in his way), he's even worse than the baby-eater with the hand-held eyeballs whom Ofelia encounters in her second task. Through him, del Toro calls up images of "The Shining" and leaves C. S. Lewis behind. (You won't, or shouldn't, find kids in the seats for this one despite its young heroine and classically juvenile motifs. In fact several adults at my showing confessed to shutting their eyes during some scenes.) The only bright star in Ofelia's sky is the kind, brave housekeeper Mercedes (Maribel Verdú) who works to make her world a better place.

By doing so, instead of looking for another reality, is Mercedes more heroic than Ofelia? It's a tough call. The girl proves her worth to both worlds at the end but del Toro leaves the moral open. All we can know is that life is a thorny path to travel. So too are stories who deliver this as their message.

Copyright © 2007 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.